The Crucible Project (EPC)

EPC's landmark project supporting university and industry collaboration in engineering showcasing and sharing the keys to success.

About this event

There are many ways in which industry and academia can support each other's success – in research, in building skills, in developing regions – and engineering is at the forefront of this work.

That is why the EPC has launched the Crucible Project – a major initiative to showcase and share the secrets of success in collaboration.

This inaugural one-day online conference will feature dozens of projects that exemplify innovative win-win partnerships. These will form the basis of a free toolkit to support any university or business to forge the bonds that build mutually beneficial collaboration.

The Crucible Project was inspired by the EPC's landmark 2020 Annual Congress, Industry & Academia: Supercharging the Crucible, which highlighted five areas of mutual interest and mapped many of the challenges:

• Universities’ and businesses’ shared role in regional development
• Collaborating with industry for teaching and learning
• Knowledge exchange
• Research
• Graduate employability and recruitment

The conference will include panel sessions for each of these areas with presentations from academics and businesses who have found solutions and who are willing to share their learning. There will be plenty of opportunities to quiz them and discuss how their success can be emulated.

Following the conference, the proceedings will be published in a downloadable book and a wealth of practical resources will be brought together into a toolkit on the EPC website to support all Engineering academics and partners in industry.

The conference will feature a keynote by Prof John Perkins CBE, FREng, former Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and author of the Perkins Reviews of Engineering Skills.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Academics at all levels – whether early career staff looking for opportunities to establish a network or senior leaders who want to extend the role of industry partnerships in their strategy or who want to improve graduate employment outcomes.

Managers in industry looking to establish links with academics to boost research, development, innovation and talent pipeline.

Policy-makers and sector agencies with an interest in industry and academia working more closely for the benefit of the economy, society and regions.